Processed foods are difficult to avoid and some may be nutritious depending on your needs. A way to know if foods will help to meet your needs is by reading food labels. In today’s post, I will cover aspects of food labels you can focus on when choosing between foods.
First, what are processed foods?
These are foods that are changed from their original state before being eaten. Most foods in the supermarket are processed because they have been altered before being sold. For example, brown rice is the product of removing an inedible outer layer called the hull from the Orzya Stevia plant. Rice can be further processed to remove the germ and bran (these parts contain fiber and B-Vitamins that make brown rice more nutritious than white rice) to produce white rice, which can be enriched with other nutrients later in the process.
Enrichment and fortification are ways to add nutrients such as vitamins and minerals to foods. In recent years, leaders and organizations have attempted to prevent malnutrition by promoting the addition of micronutrients such as iron to foods such as rice. Recently, India’s prime minister enacted a policy that would make rice fortification mandatory for rice that is provided by public nutrition programs.1 Although the policy is controversial, and some experts suggest more data on fortification in preventing anemia or iron deficiency is needed, there have been instances in history that have proved that fortification can prevent disease.1 In the early 1900s pellagra, a vitamin deficiency associated with low intakes of niacin was prevalent and one of the leading causes of death.2 Once, bread enrichment began the death rate went down, and in 1940 the Committee on Food and Nutrition recommended that niacin, riboflavin, and iron be added to flour.2,3
What about ultra-processed foods?
These are foods that have gone through more processing than any others. They are considered more processed because they may have additives, colors, flavors, and emulsifiers added to them. Examples may include ham, breakfast meats, breakfast cereals, cake, lunch meats, baby formula, or oral nutrition supplements such as Ensure. Would you say all of those are unhealthy choices? That answer depends on your needs. For example, baby formula is most nourishing to infants who are not being breastfed because the formula contains nutrients that infants need and is in a form that infants can digest. Processed and ultra-processed foods are difficult to avoid. That does not mean you should clear your kitchen of all processed foods. Knowing what to look for when reading a food label can help to make informed decisions when purchasing food.
Food Label Basics
Food labels have multiple parts aside from nutrition facts that usually appear on the back or sides of food labels. The part you will typically see first includes the product logo and name. In addition, you might see words such as low sodium or low fat. Those are food claims, that are allowed through regulations. Food labels for most foods except meat and poultry are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 4 The FDA requires that food labels provide accurate and true information about the food items. Different types of food claims can be made. I will cover nutrient and health claims.
Nutrient Claims
Likely you have seen nutrient claims with words such as less, free, reduced, or low on food labels. These can only be made if the nutrient content meets the definitions made by the FDA for each claim. For example, fat-free means there are less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving of the food or food substance. Depending on your needs, you might want to pay attention to certain nutrient claims.
If you are looking to limit sugar in your diet, “no sugar added”, “sugar-free”, or “zero sugar” might stand out to you. No sugar added means that besides the sugar that is already in the food, no additional sugar is added. Nowadays, food labels have been updated to provide a breakdown of carbohydrates (carbs in short) to include total sugars, fiber, and added sugars. Nutrient claims with no added sugar would have 0 grams of added sugar in the nutrition facts. Sugar-free and zero sugar may mean that the food item may use artificial sweeteners or may just mean that there is less than 0.5 grams of sugar per serving of that food item. In other words, there is a very small amount of sugar.
Perhaps, you are concerned with your heart health. You might look for nutrient claims such as “less” or “low sodium.” These are not the same. Less means there is not as much sodium (at least 25% less) as compared to a reference food item while low sodium means there are less than 140 milligrams (mg) of sodium per serving. For example, Kikkoman Soy Sauce might have several bottles with different nutrient claims. Let’s say bottle 1 has no claims, bottle 2 has “less sodium” on it, and bottle 3 says “low sodium.” In this hypothetical example, bottle 1 has 500 mg of sodium per serving. Bottle 2 could have up to 375 mg of sodium per serving and bottle 3 would contain 140 mg or less of sodium per serving. In this case, low sodium would be the best option, if you wanted to choose the item with the least sodium.
Health Claims
You may also see health claims that suggest that a food item may support your health in some way. They will include two parts;
1) the food item, ingredient, or substance, and
2) the disease or health condition.5
For example, a statement that a food item can support healthy digestion. These health claims can be made if supported by sufficient scientific data, a statement made by a scientific body such as the National Academy of Sciences, or in the case that the food item is a dietary supplement and the quality of supporting evidence falls below FDA standards, the FDA will review petitions for health claims, to see if there is credible evidence.5 I have not seen health claims as often as nutrient claims, and I suspect that is because all the listed ways for companies to make them require more effort, than the amount of profits generated from them. So, I defined them here in case you do see them.
Nutrition Facts
As mentioned above, nutrition facts usually appear on the backs or sides of food labels and most foods are required to include them. Additionally, depending on if updates are needed the FDA may change the requirements for nutrition facts to include other information. Since 2016, nutrition facts should have a line on added sugar, amounts and percent daily values of Vitamin D and potassium have been added. The design changed to make the calories per serving easier to see and serving sizes easier to understand. These changes are made to allow shoppers to make the most informed choices. So why does this all matter to you as a consumer? Well, depending on what your goals are, you might care about the amount of nutrients in your diet.
Let’s start with understanding serving sizes or the amount of a specific food that is considered a serving. One container or package may contain more than one serving of a food. The serving size may be listed in different units of measure such as teaspoons and cups. For example, you might see the serving size is ¼ of a cup and see that the container has 4 servings. If you have more than one serving, let’s say ½ cup or 2 servings, you are going to have 2 times the calories, fat, carbs, and other nutrients listed on the label.
Now that you understand serving sizes you might want to look for other specific information such as the amount of carbs, protein, fat, sodium, or sugar in the food item. To know if any food is high or low in a certain nutrient, you should look at the % daily value. If that value is 5% or less then, the food is low in that nutrient, if the value is 20% or more then the food is high in that nutrient.
If you have concerns about sugar, you can find the total sugars in the carbohydrate section under the total fiber. Under the total sugars, is the amount of added sugars. The latest dietary guidelines recommend that less than 10% of calories should be from added sugars. For a 2000-calorie diet, that would be no more than 50 grams (g) or 12 teaspoons of added sugar.
You might be concerned about heart health. If you so, fats and sodium may be of interest to you. Those are bolded on the nutrition facts. Fats are divided into saturated and trans fats. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 5-6% of saturated fat in a 2000-calorie diet. That’s about 120 calories and 12 g of saturated fat per day. 6 Dietary guidelines of America recommend no more than <2300 mg of sodium per day. You might also want to look, at the potassium which is towards the bottom of the nutrition facts. Increasing potassium in your diet may help prevent heart disease. Although, with certain conditions, you might want to limit potassium in your diet. That is why it is important to seek guidance from a registered dietitian when it comes to specific situations. Any recommendations you see above, are not tailored to you specifically. They are general guidelines and tips when reading food labels.
Concluding thoughts
You have probably heard of processed and ultra-processed foods by now. They are likely foods you encounter daily because they are difficult to avoid. I hope learning how to read food labels, will help you make the best choices. Rather than completely avoiding aisles in grocery stores out of fear of processed foods you should have a better idea of what to look for.
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